ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

I actually function pretty good in a mess, but a clean shop is definitely a pleasure to work in. Think it comes from not having toolboxes or other organizing items like shelves. Always spent my money on the tools to get the job done. I'm getting to the point where I have some extra funds to use on that stuff and trying to set up the new garage for success keeping it clean and organized. Now just have to find, or make the time to do it and keep up with it. Once it gets messy it's easy to keep making it worse. Thanks for the inspiration Mike!

It has driven me crazy the last couple of nights walking out and locking up knowing I had such a mess in the machining quadrant of the shop. I couldn't do it one more night.

 

[zanyad]

However, with the addition of my DRO, I have been doing more experimenting with depth of cuts and pushing the tooling a bit more than I have in the past and found the sweet spot on some of my tooling that nets me great finish as well as landing spot on the dimensions, a win/win.

Two things I've found useful:

For speeds and feeds, FSWizard machinist calculator (available for iPhone, Android, or on the web)

For precise finish turning, especially when boring or when using a lighter machine where deflection can be an issue, try the three-pass technique. I made my own spreadsheet that calculates the values, but a quick Google search threw up this calculator.

 

[zanyad]

Also, forgot to mention: nice job on the tooling!

 

[bugnut]

Mike, great work on the tooling. Now that you have a dro on the lathe, I would suggest you chamfer the bore before reaming. The result is no burrs in the reamed hole. Shop looks nice and clean!!

 

[zmotorsports]

Yesterday just before leaving work, I received a call that my Mopar fuel tank skid/cradle showed up, finally. So I swung by and picked it up on the way home.


Couple pictures of the rust on my original. I've seen worse, but this was as bad as I wanted to let mine get as it wouldn't get any better as time goes on. Still, for 14 years and 170k miles for a Jeep that sees a fair amount of off-road, I don't think it has held up too poorly, especially for the few rocks it has come in contact with.




I got the AGA Powertrain lift table setup under it and began to remove it from the Jeep. This mounting tab mounts under the rear suspension bracket so the tank had to be shifted towards the center of the Jeep a couple of inches to clear.


Which put the tank's cradle right up against the driveshaft. I really didn't want to remove the driveshaft so I thought I'd see if there was enough room and there was, barely. Next time it may be just a little bit easier to remove the driveshaft prior.


The nice thing about this lift table is I can walk around the component being lowered and make sure there are no interferences or things hanging up as I am lowering it remotely with the hand held cable release.


I had disconnected the tank fill and EVAP connections as the rear of the tank but the only two remaining were the fuel outlet and electrical at the fuel pump module. I knew there was a little slack so I could lower the assembly a little to gain me better access to the connection points.


On top of the tank there is about 78k miles of dirt and debris, much of the red sand I'm sure is from both Moab and San Rafael Swell areas.


Before disconnecting the fuel line and the electrical connection I grabbed the shop vac and cleaned it up a little.


And it's out.



Stay tuned for more.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on with the tank skid replacement.

I rolled the tank and skid assembly outside to blow off the fine dirt. Now our lawn has a little bit of Moab and the Swell in it.


This process of hanging the fuel cell from the rear bumper on these Jeeps while lowering the skid away has worked fantastic.


I went one step further and added a little bit of extra paint to the inside of the new skid, focusing more around the welded seams to see if I could just seal them off a little bit better than the factory and prolong the corrosion a bit.


While the paint was drying inside the skid, I ran a tap through all of the bolt holes in the frame and then prepped the new fasteners with anti-seize so everything was ready for installation.


With the wife not being home from work yet, I figured I would transfer the fuel cell back into the new skid.


Fuel cell united with the new skid/cradle.


With the wife still not home from work and stuck in traffic, I figured I may as well go ahead and stab the assembly back under the Jeep. Raised it back up far enough that the fuel line and electrical connection reached and reconnected.


Raised the tank up the remainder of the way and pushed it up against the driveshaft to clear the ear under the suspension mounting bracket. It was a bit more problematic going back in than coming out as the skid's ear didn't want to slide between the frame rail and bracket very well, but it eventually conceded.


With all of the fasteners started, I reconnected the tank fill hose and the EVAP hoses before zipping all of the fasteners up tight.


Completed.



Thanks for looking.

 

[ScepterToad]

Man, there was a LOT of dirt on top of that tank! Now I want to drop mine to see what kind of artifacts I can find!

That lift table is the bees knees as well. I'd have to use the transmission jack on mine with a bunch of blocking.

 

[zmotorsports]

Man, there was a LOT of dirt on top of that tank! Now I want to drop mine to see what kind of artifacts I can find!

That lift table is the bees knees as well. I'd have to use the transmission jack on mine with a bunch of blocking.

Thanks Keith. The lift table has been a great addition to the shop. The main purpose for the acquisition was for dropping powertrains, but I don't do a ton of those. What finally made me pull the trigger last year on the powertrain lift table was the fact that nearly all of the work I do these days is by myself and when I started thinking about all of the other tasks that I could use it for, it was easier to justify the cost.

As for the dirt, yeah, that's a lot. However, when I lifted the body off the frame back in early 2018 to do the LS installation, the Jeep had 92k miles on it and there was about the same amount of dirt on the top as what was seen in the above pictures. This is the first time the tank has been out of the skid/cradle however. That being said, I have dropped tanks on these Jeep JK's that had much more than what mine had and in less miles. There is just no way to get above that tank with a pressure washer as it is up tight against the underside of the chassis. So as clean as people try to keep their Jeeps, if they do much off-roading at all, the tops of these tanks can get pretty filthy. Just the nature of the beast I guess.

 

[zanyad]

For precise finish turning, especially when boring or when using a lighter machine where deflection can be an issue, try the three-pass technique. I made my own spreadsheet that calculates the values, but a quick Google search threw up this calculator.

With my tools and material (.015R carbide insert on 1018 CF), I usually shoot for a .015-.020 finish cut per side. That means I want to rough it .090-.120 over, then start the 3 passes. Here's a screenshot with values from the last time I used it:

 

[LXCam]

That’s good info zanyad, thanks!

But me, I’m not that ballsy. I’m less than .005 on a finish pass since I don’t trust me all that much

 

[zmotorsports]

With my tools and material (.015R carbide insert on 1018 CF), I usually shoot for a .015-.020 finish cut per side. That means I want to rough it .090-.120 over, then start the 3 passes. Here's a screenshot with values from the last time I used it:

Good info @zanyad and I think I may have come to the same conclusion at what you are saying. In the past I have gotten in trouble getting too close to finished tolerances and then end up overshooting my target when trying to take lighter cuts, plus the finish has to be "massaged" using a combination of files and progressively finer emery paper. From my experience, especially with carbides, the nose radius plays a large role in not only the final finish, but also what can and cannot be removed and still net acceptable results, although surface finish can be subjective.

I'll try to explain what I "think" is happening and you tell me if I'm off my rocker.

The noze radius of the tool being say .015" such as in the TCMT 21.51 or DCMT 21.51 inserts I'm using seem to "skim over" the surface when trying to take cuts down under that particular nose radius and therefore I would continue to creep in a few thou at a time until all of a sudden the nose radius gets under the surface and BAM! All of a sudden I overshoot and now I'm .010 or more undersize.

When I was playing and experimenting with not only the DRO, but also depth of cuts throughout this tool project I think I really stumbled across something in this matter. I'm sure this is not new news to anyone with more experience, but to me seeing this with my own eyes and trying different depths of cuts really drove it home in my head of what I think is taking place.

I was needing to remove a lot of material because the stock and tubing that I had on hand was not as close to what I needed so I found myself having to removed .300"-.400" or more from both the ID and the OD of the stock, which also gave me a great opportunity to test my theory and play with various depths of cut and take measurements along the way all while monitoring surface finish. I have also struggled with boring to a flat bottom hole, which I feel much better about now after completing this project. I feel very confident with actual turning speed and feeds as far as machine settings for both lathe and mill work, depending on material. I also have what I think is a pretty good feel for feed rates, the area I have struggled with is depth of cut and mainly on mild steel because it is so less forgiving when it comes to surface finishes.

Now my lathe is fairly sturdy but not what I would call as rock solid as say some of the older machines having more mass and weighing 2k-3K plus pounds. The new lathe stand did help mine in the rigidity department, but it is still a relatively light machine, so I am not able to take .125" plus depth of cuts with my 2HP lathe.

When I was starting my cuts, I would start out heavy (for my machine) at around .060"-.080" depth of cuts. I have my DRO set to read total diameter so that is .030"-.040" depth of cut per side and I was getting a very nice finish and the chips were coming off straw colored to maybe very pale light blue so although I was pushing my limits, I felt like it was a good rate of removal to net me both the speed as well as finish.

When I took closer to .025"-.030" total material removal, even though the chips were coming off nice the surface finish suffered greatly. I went back to taking .080" total removal and throughout the measuring I was pretty much dead nuts on the sizing of the part as it was being turned down. I saved .045"-.050" for the finish cut and the results were amazing as you can see above by the surface finished. What I also learned was that I no longer had to fear of overshooting and could repeat my results time and time again by using this process and the final dimensions were spot on dead nuts on my target, right to the thousandth. This was kind of the "a ha" project for me.

On a side note, I'm not sure how everyone else turns to sizes, but prior to having the DRO and solely using the dials, I would measure after a test cut, then subtract my target to see how much material I needed to remove. When I got down to under .200" (one turn of the dial), I would offset my dials so that my final measurement would land me at zero on the dial. Not sure why I did that vs. zeroing and then turning to a specific measurement other than a coworker taught me that many years ago and it just kind of stuck with me. I think I liked that process because if I set the dial so I would land on zero when at my target, if I got distracted or got called away to the phone or something, I wouldn't have to remember the target as it was already set for zero on the dial, then I would divide that up into about three final passes but seemed to always get fearful when nearing my target and back off the depths of cuts, which therefore led me to poor surface finishes and overshooting my target as mentioned above.

When I installed the DRO I kept forgetting to program my target into the DRO and would merely zero the scale I was using. Well, I finally decided to figure out how to offset the DRO to count down to zero so I could measure a part and if needing to remove more than the one rotation of the dial, .200", then I learned how to just punch the offset into my DRO and then leave a final pass of that .045"-.050" and the results were both great surface finish as well as landing exactly on my target dimension.

Sorry, for the long overview, but this was the first real project where I pushed myself to actually learn the functionality of the DRO in the respect of offsetting my dimensions so I land at zero for my final pass as well as pushed myself to better understand the relationship between the insert and surface finish and seeing as how I was using mild steel, this seemed to be the perfect learning opportunity as mild steel seems to be the hardest material I have come across thus far to obtain a nice surface finish, although that can be somewhat subjective.

 

[zmotorsports]

That’s good info zanyad, thanks!

But me, I’m not that ballsy. I’m less than .005 on a finish pass since I don’t trust me all that much

Cam, ^^this is what I think I tried to explain above and hope I made sense. I got down right **** results when I took light cuts and had to learn to trust the process and take deeper depth of cuts in order to obtain the surface finish I was after.

 

[PugetDude]

Mike, now that you are completely finished, may I suggest a coat of bed liner on the top side of the new cradle before re-installation?

 

[LXCam]

Cam, ^^this is what I think I tried to explain above and hope I made sense. I got down right **** results when I took light cuts and had to learn to trust the process and take deeper depth of cuts in order to obtain the surface finish I was after.

I followed you Mike and I should have stated that. I’ll give a heavier cut a shot and see how the finish turns out. I will say that’s bit me in the *** before, not on finish quality but but on final dimension since I’d been working the piece for a while. Once it cooled off it was a “damn it!”

 

[zmotorsports]

I followed you Mike and I should have stated that. I’ll give a heavier cut a shot and see how the finish turns out. I will say that’s bit me in the *** before, not on finish quality but but on final dimension since I’d been working the piece for a while. Once it cooled off it was a “damn it!”

I completely agree Cam. It's bit me in the *** more times than I can count as well. Taking deeper cuts sounds counterintuitive when talking about "sneaking" up on the dimensions, but once I finally decided to give it a try and trust the process as well as my machinery, it actually works. I figured since the dimensions on these tools were not critical, this would be the project to play with various approaches and test my theory.

You are correct that heat definitely plays a role, especially with thinner material or wall thicknesses. Generally, on thinner materials I will allow things to cool a bit before that final cut and make any necessary adjustments. Another thing I noticed, especially with the DRO lately, is that upon taking that initial cut when the parts hasn't been heat soaked yet, then taking that measurement and then programming in the offset target dimension into the DRO, I can still follow to zero and it may be off by about .001"-.0015" and then I walk away and leave it. Upon the part cooling I noticed that it lands right on my target, dead nuts.

However, the opposite is also true. If I make multiple cuts and the part gets hot, and THEN I take the measurement, program in the offset and turn to my zero, it may measure spot on however, upon the part cooling it is usually under by about that same amount.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

In regards to finish quality ive found making sure on the mill I’m trammed is the biggest factor. ( Putting in new spindle bearings also made a massive difference )
That way im not re-cutting any chips as the cutter head moves across the work.

The other thing I’ve started to do is when I get close to my last few passes is switching out the cutters to fresh ones that are as sharp as can be. I used to run my carbides until they were obviously worn, but like anything with cutting tools sharper is always better finish quality… that also meant tossing a lot of the lower quality important cutters I had.

 

[zmotorsports]

In regards to finish quality ive found making sure on the mill I’m trammed is the biggest factor. ( Putting in new spindle bearings also made a massive difference )
That way im not re-cutting any chips as the cutter head moves across the work.

The other thing I’ve started to do is when I get close to my last few passes is switching out the cutters to fresh ones that are as sharp as can be. I used to run my carbides until they were obviously worn, but like anything with cutting tools sharper is always better finish quality… that also meant tossing a lot of the lower quality important cutters I had.

Thank you and I agree. Tramming the head it crucial to getting a good surface finish on a mill.

That being said, I should have been more specific when I was speaking of testing theory and various depths of cut as I was referring to the lathe, which is where I seemed to get less than desired results when creeping up on my target dimensions.

 

[bugnut]

Mike, typically moving from negative cutting tool geometry to positive will get you better surface finish on mild steel. But that is a whole nother topic.

Your process resetting dials so zero is final, I believe was established as a best practice long before cnc/dro's were installed.

 

[zanyad]

I'm glad I was able to help. I've also found that I can use hand-ground HSS tools to cut very light depths of cut, whereas with carbide I've also run into what Mike describes above, attempting to take very light cuts without success until the cross slide moves in enough and then it takes off too much. Making sure the part isn't too hot for my finish cuts is also a good practice.

 

[zmotorsports]

Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was very pleasant here along the Wasatch Front with mild temperatures and clear skies most of the weekend, which allowed us for some great views of the changing colors yesterday.

I got a late start on Saturday as the wife wanted me to go to breakfast with her siblings and dad. I really should have stayed home and done something productive..

Seeing as how I didn't really show the tight tolerances I was able to hold during the machining steps using the above mentioned process, I thought I'd show the finished parts of the tools and their respective final measurements. I was able to stay within about a half a thou by taking the amounts mentioned above and still landing right on my target dimensions of 2.5" and 2" for the respective tool sizes.










Before beginning work on the Jeep Saturday morning, I did want to treat the tools to some form of protection and I've had good results using bluing.


Stamped the two sizes into the bottom of the tools.


First step on the 2.5" tools after a couple minutes of being submerged in the bluing.


The last component and after all were hit with some 0000 steel wool.


The 2" tool after being wiped down with acetone but before the dip in the bluing.



Stay tuned for many more pictures.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on.

All of the individual parts of both tools have been soaked in the bluing, dressed with steel wool and the two pieces on the right have been treated with some oil to preserve the bluing.


With the 2" tool oiled, now it was time to apply oil to the 2.5" tool.


Both completed. I do need to machine a small aluminum washer to act as an aid to hold the tools together when not in use. I dug through my scraps and found a couple pieces that will work so the next time I have to use the lathe, I'll know those out.




Ready for hopefully many years of use.


I also wiped down the new fuel tank skid and applied a good coat of gloss black paint.


And installed the small transfer case skid that I sanded and painted last week.



Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

I'm glad I was able to help. I've also found that I can use hand-ground HSS tools to cut very light depths of cut, whereas with carbide I've also run into what Mike describes above, attempting to take very light cuts without success until the cross slide moves in enough and then it takes off too much. Making sure the part isn't too hot for my finish cuts is also a good practice.

Thank you. Yes, I have a couple of hand ground HSS tools that I use when I need to sneak up on dimensions with lighter cuts as they seem to handle the light cuts much better than carbide. But carbide is just so damn convenient. I will admit though, learning to grind HSS is definitely a skill I am thankful to have in my toolbox though as I still use it a lot, even with much of my work being with carbide tooling.

 

[zmotorsports]

With the fuel tank skid completed, transfer case skid plate installed and the new Johnny Joint tools ready for use, I removed the other components of the rear suspension link by link so I could rebuild the joints.

I rebuilt the right lower link using my old standard procedure of an assortment of sockets to push and receive the components in the hydraulic press and although it worked as usual, I was anxious to try out the new tool for the remaining three links on the rear suspension, plus the two lowers on the front suspension.

The tools worked great and just as planned. Makes the job go so much quicker and especially not having to balance the link with one hand, while pumping the hydraulic press with the other all while balancing the joint being removed on a series of receivers while driving the bushing either out or back into the joint.

Step one is to index the joint onto the tool, then install the driver and slightly compress the old bushing to remove the snap ring. The snap ring was stuck in there a bit so even with the pressure removed from the snap ring, I had to take a punch and smack the snap ring around the diameter of the joint to jar it loose from the groove. Once I felt it was broke free, I simply removed the snap ring with pliers. All this was while it was clamped and indexed onto the tool which was so effortless not having to balance the link and hold it.


With the snap ring removed, I put released the driver and positioned the sleeve under the joint directly to the base and then reinstalled the driver to the opposite side of the snap ring groove. This will allow me to push the old bushing out and into the receiver, free from the joint.


Once the bushing was clear of the joint, the link could be lifted away from the tool and set aside.


Turning the sleeve upside down and a slight smack with the hammer and the old bushing, spherical ball and washer pop out in my hand.


I took the spherical ball to the wire wheel bench grinder, cleaned it and then clamped the link in the vise so I could clean the inside of the joint housing.


The wire wheel expands and does a good job of quickly cleaning the inside bore of the joint.


Joint prepped and ready for reassembly.


Grease applied to the spherical ball and installed inside the new bushing halves.


The joint indexed onto the tool with one new washer installed in the joint.


New bushing started into the tapered sleeve.



Stay tuned for more.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on with the Johnny Joint assembly.

The tapered sleeve with the new bushing and washer indexed onto the joint and ready to press.


Driver installed and pressing begins.


The bushing is easily driven into the joint's housing.


Once the bushing clears the tapered sleeve, the sleeve is simply lifted off the tool and joint revealing the driver indexed on the washer. No need to disassemble for the next step........


......which is simply pressing just enough to clear the snap ring groove and installing the snap ring.


Joint rebuild.


New grease zerk installed and ready to grease.


Apply grease and move the joint through its range of motion while greasing until even grease exits the joint. Once joint is greased, wipe off excess and it is ready to install in the Jeep.


Installed and bolt torqued and marked. The axle end is not torqued until after all the Jeep's weight is sitting on it so the rubber encapsulated bushings can be torqued at their neutral position.


With all of the rear joints rebuilt, the Jeep was set down on jackstands so I could reposition the arms to clear the front lower links which will be rebuilt next.



At that point, it was late afternoon and the wife and I were going for a drive and to dinner so I closed up the shop for the day.

Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

My son reached out to us Saturday night saying our grandson wanted to go see waterfalls and go on a picnic on Sunday. Ever since he came over a few weeks ago and the wife took him in the motorhome to check it out and say we'll have to take him with us and we'd eat sandwiches and have a picnic, I guess he's been telling his mom and dad about eating sandwiches and having a picnic every time he sees a motorhome.

I didn't know where we'd find waterfalls this late in the year, but I thought we could go for a drive up into the mountains and see the leaves changing color and of course, pack a picnic lunch. We broke him into dirt roads and a picnic lunch, so I guess next time we'll have to take the coach out for a day excursion and go somewhere to have a picnic lunch.

As we were looking for a place to pull off and have lunch he kept saying he wanted to eat in the back of Papa's truck, so he sat and ate his sandwich and enjoyed his picnic lunch.


I'm not used to taking the truck off-road, but we were able to see some amazing colors while on our drive and got to spend the day with our kids and grandson so it was a pretty special day. Especially seeing our grandson enjoy his picnic lunch.


I'm glad we squeezed this into our weekend, because I think we almost missed the changing of the leaves this year. The wife and I usually take at least several drives to see the fall colors, but time got away from us this year and had our son not suggested this, we may have missed it completely.


Not a waterfall, but my son said any body of water would be fine, so we found a small lake up in the mountains and my son and grandson just enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. Reminds me of my son who just wanted to throw rocks in the water for hours on end.



What a great day enjoying the beautiful fall weather and family.

Thanks for looking.

 

[stinkity stoink]

Great stuff always going on in your thread. It’s never disappointing

 

[zmotorsports]

Great stuff always going on in your thread. It’s never disappointing

Thank you and thank you for continuing to check back in on my thread.

 

[Bodj Built]

What a great reminder to break away from the day to day and smell the roses. Glad you got to spend that time making core memories with your son and grandson.

 

[zmotorsports]

What a great reminder to break away from the day to day and smell the roses. Glad you got to spend that time making core memories with your son and grandson.

Thank you. The wife and I enjoy our weeklong vacations and can seem to relax. However, when it comes to just a normal day or weekend, lately we've had trouble breaking away to just enjoy the little things. We talk about it, but then we end up staying home and working on whatever it is staring us right in the face rather than going and doing things. We really need to change that. We say each spring that we are going to take off and do more things on the weekends, but then we stay home and work around the house or in the shop.

 

[rd65]

Thank you. The wife and I enjoy our weeklong vacations and can seem to relax. However, when it comes to just a normal day or weekend, lately we've had trouble breaking away to just enjoy the little things. We talk about it, but then we end up staying home and working on whatever it is staring us right in the face rather than going and doing things. We really need to change that. We say each spring that we are going to take off and do more things on the weekends, but then we stay home and work around the house or in the shop.

We didn't do much of anything side trips this year but we both had a good time puttering around the house. We were gone on a couple 1-week vacations in July, so it isn't like we didn't get away at all. These days I'm like, if we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves, why worry about not tripping anywhere on long weekend journeys? We have the kids that are in the area over with their families every Sunday for dinner. She really looks forward to time with the grandkids, we have 8 - to be 9 in December. Three are with her daughter in Ohio.

 

[zmotorsports]

We didn't do much of anything side trips this year but we both had a good time puttering around the house. We were gone on a couple 1-week vacations in July, so it isn't like we didn't get away at all. These days I'm like, if we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves, why worry about not tripping anywhere on long weekend journeys? We have the kids that are in the area over with their families every Sunday for dinner. She really looks forward to time with the grandkids, we have 8 - to be 9 in December. Three are with her daughter in Ohio.

Awesome. Congrats on the upcoming addition to the family.

I should state, that even when we are staying home and working, I'm not complaining because our home and neighborhood are so much nicer than at our last home and especially the neighborhood. We enjoyed our last home, but as the neighborhood started to decline, we found that on weekends we took off in the coach to simply escape the neighborhood, whereas here we don't feel like we need to do that. In fact, we simply love being home and if we can't get away for a week or so at a time, we would just as soon stay home and enjoy our home. We love our home and our neighborhood, so staying home to work on the weekends still nets us a couple of mornings sitting on the deck enjoying morning coffee and a couple of evenings sitting on the deck enjoying the backyard. Being home means more to us over the last several years than it ever meant for the first 30~ish years of our marriage.

This past weekend we sat on the deck enjoying the back yard and we joked that we will probably never be "caught up", but we enjoy the work and especially our home so we'll make the best of it. The yard work is more for me and the house cleaning is more for the wife, but it's the price we pay to have the home we have and therefore we make the best of it and enjoy the process of keeping things maintained.

My wife is just as **** about maintaining the inside of our home as I am the outside, and I love that about her. I love pulling in the neighborhood and seeing my yard the way I "want" it to be and when I walk in the door of our home and find it exactly how she wants the inside to be. There are no dishes in the sink, no pans sitting on the stove and nothing, I mean nothing out of place. She is so meticulous about how she maintains our home and she does it because she enjoys it, and THAT is what I love about her. Also, neither of us do it for any outward influences. We really don't care what other people think about our home because most will never see it, we maintain our home and vehicles to the level we do simply because we hold ourselves accountable and enjoy having things a certain way, if for no other reason as peace of mind.

 

[bugnut]

Mike, looks like a great picnic and outing!

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, looks like a great picnic and outing!

Thanks Joel. It was a great day with the family.

 

[zmotorsports]

I was able to get the front lower link joints rebuilt last night on the Jeep.

With the weight sitting down on jackstands, I torqued the rear link joints to spec.


Driver's side rear joints being torqued.


From there I raised the Jeep in the air and dropped the left front lower link for rebuild. Disassembled it using the new tool.


After a thorough cleaning, the spherical ball was greased.


The new bushing was installed over the spherical joint and placed in the tapered sleeve for installation into the housing.


Joint and bushing being pressed into the housing.


Driver tightened just enough to expose the snap ring groove.


Snap ring installed and the joint is rebuilt. Can now be removed from the tool.


And clamped in the vise for greasing and moving through its range of travel to evenly distribute the grease within the joint.


Driver's front lower ready to be installed.



More to follow.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on.

Reinstalling the driver's lower link, axle end first but fastener only snugged, not fully tightened until the full weight is applied and sitting at ride height.


The Johnny Joint however, can be fully torqued to spec while in the air and all fasteners paint marked.


With the passenger's side lower link rebuilt, the Jeep can be lowered and new tires installed. Then the weight was set down to torque the wheels on as well as the lower front links could be torqued to spec.


Just as the sun was setting I snapped a couple pictures of the outside of the shop.


Just wrapping up the Jeep and ready to move it out of the shop.


Jeep completed and parked back in the attached garage.


Then the process of cleaning the shop began. I had quite a mess so it took a bit to clean and sweep. I was just finishing up when the wife arrived home from work, so perfect timing.





Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

Last night was supposed to be lawn mowing night, but we had a lot of rain yesterday and the lawn was "squishy". So, I pulled the truck in the shop after work as it was due for a LOF service.

Tires/wheels removed and rolled around to their new position as a tire rotation is also on the list.


Oil draining while I give everything a good look over underneathe.


I am quite pleased with how well the Summit Racing chassis paint is holding up.


It's a little dirty from the dirt road we drove on Sunday as well as the heavy rain we had yesterday, but overall the paint is holding up well. I really need to make some time to sand the frame down and give it a fresh paint job.


New drain washer and drain plug torqued to spec.


Oil filter draining. The form-a-funnel works great to twist and bend around things to aid in getting the fluid where you want it to go vs. having it run all over components that don't need lubrication.


Tires/wheels reinstalled and torqued to spec.


Lift arms retracted and ready to put oil in it and road test.


After a quick road test, I pulled it back in the shop to give it a thorough interior cleaning. Vacuum and wipe the interior down as it was a little dusty from Sunday's picnic up in the mountains. The truck is not used to going off-road. That's the Jeep's responsibility.



Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was a very wet weekend here along the Wasatch Front. I didn't get a chance to mow my lawn Friday night as it rained off and on most of the day Friday and then starting around 8pm Friday night, it rained pretty consistent all the way through to Saturday night, then a couple little sprinkles on Sunday morning. So the lawn got watered extremely well as I had a lot of standing water as the dry wells filled up throughout the storm. I'll probably need to rent a swather to mow it tonight or tomorrow night when it dries out.

Friday night upon arriving home from work and not being able to mow the lawns, I figured I would make a mess of the lathe and finish the Johnny Joint tools by making a couple of aluminum washers to capture the tools for storage.

I made one for the 2.5" tool and one for the 2" tool.










About the time I finished cleaning the lathe and the shop, my son and DIL dropped their Acura RDX off for some work on Saturday, so I got to hang out with them and my grandson for a few minutes in the shop. My grandson just runs around the shop touching and exploring every time he comes over and it is so enjoyable to see his little mind racing with all of the things he comes up with to ask. I showed him how to move the rolling step stool over to the toolbox so he could see inside the socket and wrench drawers of my toolbox so that was the highlight of his visit.

 

[zmotorsports]

Saturday was our son's birthday and I was able to spend the entire day with him wrenching in the shop, so it was a pretty great day. We had some work to do on his wife's Acura RDX so we made a day of it.

Sorry, I didn't take very detailed pictures of the valve adjustment process. We just spend the day talking and wrenching and I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do on a job such as this. All in all the job went smoothly, other than it took longer than expected but I'm seeing a trend there lately. We replaced the timing belt and water pump components a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to adjust the valves at that time. Each of the valves were off by a couple thou. each, not terrible, but glad we didn't put it off any longer.




Buttoning the top of the engine back up with new gaskets going on the upper intake and torquing to spec.


Turned our attention to the underside for an engine and transmission service along with a tire rotation.




Transmission fluid still looked very healthy.



That is where the shop work was wrapped up.


Thanks for looking.

 

[signcrafter]

Sounds like a great Birthday Day with your son Mike. I have a few old click type torque wrenches, cheap ones I'm not even sure where I got them. My kids love when I'm putting tires back on I will get one of them out and set it to the lowest setting and let them go around and do the first round of tightening the lugs up. Then I will go around with the digital one and "check" to make sure they are all set right. I try to get them involved in some way when they are out there and I'm working. I can't wait to find their bikes taken apart and not be able to put them back together. I remember those days very well when I was a kid and grabbed a wrench and took a tire off or handle bars and couldn't get everything back together correctly because a bearing came apart or something. Curiosity is a great quality to have.

 

[zmotorsports]

Sounds like a great Birthday Day with your son Mike. I have a few old click type torque wrenches, cheap ones I'm not even sure where I got them. My kids love when I'm putting tires back on I will get one of them out and set it to the lowest setting and let them go around and do the first round of tightening the lugs up. Then I will go around with the digital one and "check" to make sure they are all set right. I try to get them involved in some way when they are out there and I'm working. I can't wait to find their bikes taken apart and not be able to put them back together. I remember those days very well when I was a kid and grabbed a wrench and took a tire off or handle bars and couldn't get everything back together correctly because a bearing came apart or something. Curiosity is a great quality to have.

Thanks Scott. Yeah, I love watching our grandson wander around the shop and all the things he picks up on. When I was torquing the lugnuts on the Jeep last week, they stopped by and my grandson helped me torque the wheels and he thought that was the best thing ever. He would say "click" when the torque wrench met the setting each time.

Last night when they came out to the shop to get the RDX, he had to stand on the lift's arms and play with the lever saying "crank it up" and grinning at his grandma and me.