The Karma Bucket

[Bucket-O-Karma]

Better late than never

I don't have any pics of it till I picked up the tires, but I did before and after of the tires.
This is basically what it looked like when I got it.


smallest jeep EVER



Problems:
* No backseat, nor places to mount one. (need one for Kaidiyn)
* No rear seat belts.
* Front seats were CRAP, didn't fit in the jeep, wouldn't slide, or recline, and they had what looked like homemade mounts bolted to the floor. The entire seat would move nearly 3 inches on a turn.
* Gages would suddenly stop working while driving.
* In-dash speakers were crappy felt cones from what I think was an early 80's home stereo.
* Jeep wouldn't start for no reason at times, but ran fine when it did (this problem came back with the cold weather)
* Sony CD player that skipped when jeep was running (jeep didn't even have a AM/FM antenna)
* many more minor things here and there

Good points:
* It runs
* Had less than 75k mi
* 4wd works





Found a pair of 04' "Willys Edition" front seats at a boneyard in RI for $250 for the set. Bolted them in next day.

Got a rear seat from another junkyard for around $300 with belts and brackets, and learned alot when trying instal it (under the el-cheapo carpet in the back, there were no mounting brackets, no holes, nothing!). The previous owner had removed the mounting brackets, shaved the bolts, epoxied over them, and painted over that. Needless to say the simple installation of a rear seat, WAS NOT SIMPLE but it's in and all is well.

Went to the local junkyard and picked up 4 BFG ATs with rims (less than fifty miles on the tires) for around $400. Tossed those on.

At this point we are here:





Grabbed a set of 2" coil spacers with skyjacker hydros online for $235 altogether. I threw about 5 coats of rustolium on them to delay the rot. My buddy stopped by just long enough to ruin all progress I seemed to be making at the time. I asked him if he could remove one of my rear shocks while I took care of the other. He snape'd one of the bolts, we couldn't extract it, so I had to drill it out I ended up drilling the hole too big Spent all day, and night, installing what should have been a very simple lift

Picked up 3 tow hooks and some homebrew swaybar disco's at Tractor supply for about $26 all together

Had a CD player with an aux port installed so I could plug in my iPod, and got a free "rubber duckie" style antenna with purchase.

Removed the front "milk jugs" (bumper end caps)

That leaves me at this point:





I have to stop here, it is now 04:30 I should at least pretend I sleep. I shall continue.......

[rckrdyxj]

The gauges in my jeep like to randomly stop working too. Dont know how to fix it besides pressing on them and making a better contact. Tried dielectric grease and it helps but only for a short time.

Those wheels always look good on a TJ. Also i wish i had a set of those willys seats, would be badass in my XJ. I used to have sahara seat in it but now i have WJ leather seats. I love the 2 door XJ cause i have more options for cool seats. Made the WJ seats fold forward too for rear access.

[Mike]

Do you still have trouble starting it when its cold? I had the same exact problem, its 100% the starter. If I wacked it with a wrench it would start, I ended up stealing an starter from a comanche I "found" laying in the woods!

[ninetysix-ex-jay]

Sweet man, looks a lot better

[hydra]

Looks good, and hooray for broke bolts and shitty previous owners!!!

[Bucket-O-Karma]

..... Now back to the "catch-up" phase in my build.

While riding around I started to hear a rattle. I didn't really think anything of it, until I started hearing it at idle. The sound was my rear shock hitting my tailpipe. Bar-pin failiure was the reason.



Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing causing a rattle. My muffler was falling apart, and my headers were so loose you could tighten them with your fingers.

Grabbed some teraflex BPEs for $25, and brought them and the jeep to Waynes Radiators in torrington to replace my exhaust with a better one, and while it was on the lift he threw in the BPEs at no extra charge. Now it's louder, but it doesn't sound too much like a honda so I don't mind

I couldn't stand my faded gray fender flares, so I went to the wal*mart and picked up some Krylon Fusion satin-black rattle-can and sprayed them.
While at wal*mart, I also picked up some sweet cheapo lights, and had Chris (Chaos) help me with the instal since I know NOTHING about wiring, and don't want to catch anything on fire!

Replaced the tractor supply discos with some JKS Quicker discos, had a little difficulty removing the old links, I also ended up making some miscalculations on the placement of the retaining bars.



Got some "found money" right after bills were paid, so I got permission to order rock-sliders. I went with shrockworks. Took a month and a half to get here, but well worth the wait!







Got my stickers at the M&G, and Pete (Pedro) let me have his old XJ front springs (thanks again ). The XJ springs added about an inch to the front without any harsh side effects.

This is what it looked like After all these items were installed.


Way different from when I started!


So, it started to get colder out again, and my starting problem came back. At the same time, my radiator pissed itself at how awesome my jeep was becoming. The first replacement, also couldn't handle the awesomeness, within an hour of driving it split at the seam as well. Went back and while Chaos was fitting the next new radiator, I was cleaning ALL the grounds to see if my starting problem was a bad ground somewhere (I had no clue a jeep could have so many grounds). The radiator seems to be doing well, so far so good. The connection cleaning seemed to do the trick, but two weeks later, the problem reappeared.

Mike, you're probably right about it being the starter, but rather than chasing down the problem, I went out and got a new battery, starter, and higher amp alternator (119 instead of the 90 I had). Caleb helped with the running around, and installation of these parts.

Chaos had told me about a set of 33"s he didn't know what he was going to do with. I knew he wanted my 31"s, and decided to make a trade, but was skeptical about 33X12.5" tire on my 2.5L with D30/35, and 4:11 gears. While working on the starting issue with Caleb, I found out he was looking for 33"s, and I figured I handle his 32"s. So we set up our three way trade.

Okay, everything is caught up, for the most part. I hope to have pics up by next week with my bargain Hellas installed, and my rectangle bajas replaced with round foglights.

Anyone here able to do factory style wiring?

[88XJchief]

What do you want wired in? Im pretty good at wiring.

[Bucket-O-Karma]

Some foglights, that I would like hooked up to the headlight system (like stock), and a set on a straight switch rigged up on the windshield. One of the two sets will be the Hellas, I'm thinking they will be my windshield mount, since they are driving lights, and I would rather have a set of foglights on the bumper.






HOLY CHIT YOU CAN STILL EDIT WIT TEH OLD FORUM LOCKED!!!

[Chaos]

Oh those rock sliders were a joy to install