ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

Cam, the Chrysler fuel pump will put out the correct pressure and volume for the LS engine that I am using. I’ve discussed with Robbie at Motech and he doesn’t use anything but the OE Chrysler pump for his swaps. He said the only time he changes them is when he is going to the 525 HP version of the LS3.

The only reason I am changing mine is because it has over 90k miles on it and it will be very easy to access with the body off the frame.

 

[LXCam]

Copy that. I'd have to imagine the GM controllers use adaptive learning and in closed loop that variance in fuel pressure is there is any will compensate without issue. Where you'd possibly need to pay attention would be in open loop at WOT.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Last night I thought I had better pull the snowblower into the shop and give it a once over as we were told to expect snow on the valley floor this morning.

I had delayed getting it ready because in my head if I prepped it for that white **** I was pretty much giving consent for it. [emoji45] I checked oil level which was fine and then tire pressures and fired it up to let it run for a few minutes.

I have pretty much the same Toro snow-blower. Only real difference I can see is, mine doesn't have that blue cap on the chute directional lever. Bought it about six years ago... at Lowes, I think? And the damn thing has actually surprised me at how reliable it is. As with most all types of machines made in the last ten-twenty years, their quality isn't what we saw back in decades past. Knock-on-wood... I haven't had to do a damn thing to that snow-blower, other than change the oil in it. I've pulled the plug and the air-filter a couple times, and it always looks great. And I love that electric start feature too. Works flawlessly year after year. I wish more gas-powered machines of our current era were this dependable.

 

[zmotorsports]

I have pretty much the same Toro snow-blower. Only real difference I can see is, mine doesn't have that blue cap on the chute directional lever. Bought it about six years ago... at Lowes, I think? And the damn thing has actually surprised me at how reliable it is. As with most all types of machines made in the last ten-twenty years, their quality isn't what we saw back in decades past. Knock-on-wood... I haven't had to do a damn thing to that snow-blower, other than change the oil in it. I've pulled the plug and the air-filter a couple times, and it always looks great. And I love that electric start feature too. Works flawlessly year after year. I wish more gas-powered machines of our current era were this dependable.

Good to know. Thanks for l the feedback. I’ve only had mine about four years now. I used it one full season at the old place and then the 16/17 season at our new home and this will be the third season at our new home. Although last season I think I only used it twice. I actually haven’t had the need to use the electric start yet as it usually fires on the second or third pull.

It works well until I get to my back yard where I have to throw it three times and then it’s like concrete and doesn’t have the umph to throw it that last time.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[JCQuick]

BTW folks you need to subscribe to Mikes Youtube channel seems he shares here afterwards

HINT BROWN Box reveal


Sorry mike couldn't help myself

 

[zmotorsports]

BTW folks you need to subscribe to Mikes Youtube channel seems he shares here afterwards



HINT BROWN Box reveal





Sorry mike couldn't help myself

Thanks for the plug JC.

I appreciate you following along on my channel and commenting.

 

[Wanna Ride]

It works well until I get to my back yard where I have to throw it three times and then it’s like concrete and doesn’t have the umph to throw it that last time.

Technically, a majority of my snow only has to be thrown once. My driveway is only about 38’ wide, and with a slight grade. I start all passes from the left side, moving to the right side. So for the first 12’ or so of each pass, it’s being thrown in front of me, and that all ends up getting thrown again, and then into the yard, to the right of the driveway. Then I do all of our sidewalks, and all the area on the street, and up tight around our curbs, cutting plenty into the radiuses.

As we all know, if you don’t get it clean and maintain it deep all year, pretty soon, you’ve run out of space. So I always start out clearing way more than you’d initially think is necessary.

If memory serves me correctly, this machine throws a little more than about 20’, when the density and volume is at the sweet spot. Too light and too little and it doesn’t throw real far. It seems to make the best results when there’s about 6-8” of accumulation and it’s kinda heavy. Powder doesn’t seem to throw real well, especially if it’s windy. Ironically, it’s snowing right now and I’m guesstimating we’ll have about 6-8” of wet snow by daylight. The first real snow of the season, and I’m over it already.

Good luck on keeping yours clear and tidy this season. Hopefully, you won’t have too much accumulation!

 

[jbmatth]

Mike,
I have been off for a little over a week and all kinds of cool stuff happens. I was pretty close on my LS guess but I went for LS3 rather than L94. That should do wonders for your JKUR. It is getting me excited and something I want to do to my wife's JKU now that it has the lift and 33's it is just a dog and a half, it wouldn't even hold 70 in 6th this weekend traveling for Thanksgiving. Grrr. I'll keep tagging along and enjoying the build.

JB

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike,
I have been off for a little over a week and all kinds of cool stuff happens. I was pretty close on my LS guess but I went for LS3 rather than L94. That should do wonders for your JKUR. It is getting me excited and something I want to do to my wife's JKU now that it has the lift and 33's it is just a dog and a half, it wouldn't even hold 70 in 6th this weekend traveling for Thanksgiving. Grrr. I'll keep tagging along and enjoying the build.

JB

Thanks JB.

The only reason I haven't stepped from the 35" tires to 37" tires for the past 7 years has been due to the fact that I don't want any worse performance than I already have with the 35's. My Jeep has done alright for the past 90k miles and even last year when we drove it across I-80 to Indiana to pick up our coach from the paint shop it did "ok" for the most part but definitely had its struggles. The cruise control held and it motored along but had I been on 37's at the time I doubt it would have been so smooth for those 1600+ miles. I'm sure yours being the newer Pentastar has a bit better performance than my 3.8 liter engine but they aren't a ball of fire either.

My wife had mentioned about maybe trading up to a newer one if I was that unhappy with mine but after driving several and even a few with Hemi's I decided to keep my old Jeep that I have put so much time and money into and just transplant the GM drivetrain into her and then keep it for many more years and hopefully a couple hundred thousand miles or so. By that time who knows what I'll do, either rebuild it again or possible trade it. More than likely rebuild it again as I love this thing.

I am so confident that the new powertrain will perform to my liking that I took advantage of a Black Friday deal and ordered my new 37" tires in anticipation. My wife is worried about getting in it and that I will want to do more technical trails but I just informed her it was to get over the obstacles on the trails that we already run a bit easier with less contact of my undercarriage. I also stumbled across a new set of wheels that will be going on the ole' girl to give her a bit of a facelift to go along with the new powertrain.

I hope to start regearing my front axle and installing my hydro-assist steering tomorrow night if all goes as planned.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Mike, are you worried about center of gravity with the short wheelbase and 37" tires?

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, are you worried about center of gravity with the short wheelbase and 37" tires?

Nope. My JKU wheelbase isn't exactly what I'd call short at 116 inches and the 37" tires will only net me about 1 higher than I am now on my 35's. But this is another reason I wanted to use the LS vs. a Hemi, was to keep the mass low and centered which the LS will do.

 

[jalbrecht55]

Speaking of mass, do you think you could weigh the major assemblies (motor, trans) for both the parts going in and the parts coming out? I've seen some published numbers as well as plenty of internet estimates but it's always good to see "real" values. I'm also curious to see how the overall vehicle weight and front/rear distribution changes.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Nope. My JKU wheelbase isn't exactly what I'd call short at 116 inches and the 37" tires will only net me about 1 higher than I am now on my 35's. But this is another reason I wanted to use the LS vs. a Hemi, was to keep the mass low and centered which the LS will do.

Disregard, I had it stuck in my head you had a 2dr. The 37's will be perfect.

 

[zmotorsports]

Last night while my son was working on his truck switching over to his winter tires & wheels I tore my NP241J transfer case down to swap the input gear with the Advance Adapters 32-spline gear from the Chrysler 23-spline.



C F had asked how I remove the input seal. I tried the small seal remover like slewfoot posted but it wouldn’t budge the seal so I had to break out the Mac mini-slide hammer version. I’ve had this slide hammer for nearly 30-years and it has removed a lot of seal with very few disappointments.




New 32-spline input gear installed into planetary and ready to clean case and reassemble.


Ready for a small bead of sealant and final assembly.


I was hoping to start on my front axle tonight but my son found a couple of bushings in his truck supporting the torsion bar crossmember that are less than acceptable condition so we will replace them tonight and then maybe I can have the lift to start working on my project.

Thus will also give me a chance to put the transfer case together tonight.

 

[zmotorsports]

Speaking of mass, do you think you could weigh the major assemblies (motor, trans) for both the parts going in and the parts coming out? I've seen some published numbers as well as plenty of internet estimates but it's always good to see "real" values. I'm also curious to see how the overall vehicle weight and front/rear distribution changes.

I don’t have anything to weigh the big items but by my research there should be about 45 pounds difference between the all aluminum GM package and the iron/aluminum combination of the 3.8 Chrysler package. It shouldn’t even require any front suspension height adjustment.

My wife saw the engine for the first time last night as I hadn’t covered the engine back up with the crate and while I was talking her through the project I realized just how small the Chevy LS really is.

 

[zmotorsports]

Disregard, I had it stuck in my head you had a 2dr. The 37's will be perfect.

No worries.

Personally I think the 2-doors look best with 35’s and the 4-doors with 37’s as they are more proportionate, but that’s just me.

I’m partially going to 37’s for the looks but mainly to get up and over a few obstacles just a little easier with little or no dragging.

 

[zmotorsports]

I helped my son replace the bushings on his truck that support the torsion bars tonight. He’s had a slight clunk on rare occasions and these were all we could find that were questionable. Once we got them removed we realized they were not just questionable, they were trashed. Although they do have a quarter of a million miles on them.




You can see the gap in this one.


The one on top was from the passenger’s side that became disbonded around the center sleeve and the one on the bottom is from the driver’s side which pulled away from the outer perimeter.


Crossmember removed.


New ones ready to be installed.


One down, one to go.


Winter tires & wheels torqued on and road test complete.


In between helping my son I finished assembling my NP241J transfer case that will be going into my Jeep with the new engine and transmission.

Sealant applied after cleaning case halves.






All that’s left is to install the front yolk once the sealant cures overnight and I dare move the TC around. Nothing worse than man handling these things and smearing that small bead of sealant around and having it look like hell.

Thanks for looking.

 

[timbitca]

I have to say it once again, I love your's and your son's Duramax. Wish my '03 Sierra looked half as good, it's on it's 3rd set of rocker panels (whatever little bit is left of them) and I desperately need to get them sorted out before January when my annual inspection runs out. Stupid salt on the roads Also got a million small things to fix on it, but I still love the thing.

 

[zmotorsports]

I have to say it once again, I love your's and your son's Duramax. Wish my '03 Sierra looked half as good, it's on it's 3rd set of rocker panels (whatever little bit is left of them) and I desperately need to get them sorted out before January when my annual inspection runs out. Stupid salt on the roads Also got a million small things to fix on it, but I still love the thing.

Thanks. It seems like there's always little things that need attention, no matter what vehicle you drive. My son mentioned that after I get my Jeep done he wants to get his truck on the lift and prep and paint the frame rails before spring and before he puts his summer wheels back on. He also has some clear coat on the roof that is starting to do something stupid so I told him I would help him sand and reclear the roof this spring. Other than that it is in pretty decent condition for having 247k miles on her.

Thanks for checking in on my thread.

 

[lugnut71]

First of all your work is amazing! Second, I see your running some snap-on 14.4 volt stuff, What are your thoughts on that stuff? Been looking at them for year or so but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Thanks

 

[zmotorsports]

First of all your work is amazing! Second, I see your running some snap-on 14.4 volt stuff, What are your thoughts on that stuff? Been looking at them for year or so but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Thanks

Thank you, I appreciate the comments.

As for the Snap-on 14.4 3/8" impact gun and 3/8" drive ratchet are top shelf. I absolutely love them and reach for them "nearly" as much as I do my air tools. I also purchased the 14.4 3/8" drill but am less than impressed with it as I am the other two. I don't know that I would have purchased that again knowing what I know now. I also have a Milwaukee 14.4v cordless drill with 1/2" chuck and love that thing. I will use the Snap-on 14.4 cordless drill for anything small as the body is much smaller than the Milwaukee so for under dash or tight engine bays the Snap-on cordless drill fits the bill but for overall performance, it doesn't hold a candle to the Milwaukee cordless drill.

Thanks again for stopping by my projects thread and commenting.

 

[lilscorpion]

Ya know Mike, those who know me know I do a good job on vehicle maintenance. When I finally do sell a vehicle, it’s the nicest one compared to others with comparable miles. That being said, seeing how you keep up yours is both inspirational and makes me feel like I’m a neglectful fool at the same time.

It also makes me really need a lift. [emoji4]

 

[zmotorsports]

Ya know Mike, those who know me know I do a good job on vehicle maintenance. When I finally do sell a vehicle, it’s the nicest one compared to others with comparable miles. That being said, seeing how you keep up yours is both inspirational and makes me feel like I’m a neglectful fool at the same time.

It also makes me really need a lift. [emoji4]

Thanks Matt, I appreciate that. I try to keep up on the maintenance and repairs but as you know it can be a bit overwhelming at times. I don't know how I ever managed to run a business working on everyone else's stuff for the past 20 years as lately my own vehicles have me running in circles.

 

[zmotorsports]

Major setback last night on my son's Jeep.

He has been driving it for the past week plus putting miles on the gears and he had asked if he could get up on the freeway on Tuesday night as he was heading to his girlfriend's house. I told him sure, just be certain to vary your speed loading and unloading the gearsets slightly.

Last night I arrived home from work happy as a clam because I was going to put my Jeep on the lift and tear into my front axle gears and hydro-assist. I no sooner had it in the air when he arrived home from work and informed me that it was a bit touchy or darty at interstate speeds the night before. I told him let's look at adding just a bit more caster to it but I had concerns about the pinion angle.

We added about 1.5* of additional positive caster and I no sooner took it out on the road and realized that the front driveshaft didn't like that. We went back into the shop, removed the front driveshaft for a road test and it was much happier in the steering and handling department on the interstate but again, the pinion angle was not going to work.

Ultimately we need to add some separation between the pinion angle and caster and the only way to do that is to cut the "C's" and rotate them a bit. ****!!! That is NOT what I wanted to have happen.

So, I guess my Jeep gets put on the back burner, again, and we get to take measurements of my son's front axle tonight and start removing the axle in preparation for cutting it apart and adding some caster to the C's. He said he could live with it and drive it while I did mine but there is no way in hell I feel comfortable letting him drive it the way it is. I thought we could get by with some adjustments to the suspension links and I even welded the coil spring buckets back on a few degrees forward in anticipation of adding a bit of caster with the adjustments but the driveshaft to pinion angle is just too steep and not happy. I will try to document it but at this point I am quite frustrated and just want to get it done so I can move on to my project.

 

[LXCam]

Damn Mike, that ***** but don't let it get to you. Everyone doing anything alongs these lines has had their moments. I know I feel your pain and greatly sympathize. Remember when we talked about alignment of the shock eyelets. Well like yourself my project was done, done, done. Seam sealed, undercoated and factory looking. Like you right now I was absolutely sick to my stomach having to cut back into all that finished goodness, it was disheartening to say the least. But you have done such an amazing job documenting this build it would be a shame not to share the issue and its resolution.

Ya know one of these days "we'll" be gone and all that will be left other then memories from our loved ones will be a bunch of 1's and 0's floating thru space and some future generation wanting to modify his 200yr ole jeep will find your thread and go "oh ****, how do I fix this?"

At this point I think you owe it to your linage. I mean how would you feel if your great, great, great, great grandson blew out a Ujoint 1000 miles out into the Martian desert. Pretty ****** right?


Seriously bud knowing the details could be helpful to someone at some point and maybe even therapy to you even if it's a bit sadistic

 

[4 FN 27]

Major setback last night on my son's Jeep.

I call that a Performance Enhancement Revision Change Request.

 

[zmotorsports]

Damn Mike, that ***** but don't let it get to you. Everyone doing anything alongs these lines has had their moments. I know I feel your pain and greatly sympathize. Remember when we talked about alignment of the shock eyelets. Well like yourself my project was done, done, done. Seam sealed, undercoated and factory looking. Like you right now I was absolutely sick to my stomach having to cut back into all that finished goodness, it was disheartening to say the least. But you have done such an amazing job documenting this build it would be a shame not to share the issue and its resolution.

Ya know one of these days "we'll" be gone and all that will be left other then memories from our loved ones will be a bunch of 1's and 0's floating thru space and some future generation wanting to modify his 200yr ole jeep will find your thread and go "oh ****, how do I fix this?"

At this point I think you owe it to your linage. I mean how would you feel if your great, great, great, great grandson blew out a Ujoint 1000 miles out into the Martian desert. Pretty ****** right?


Seriously bud knowing the details could be helpful to someone at some point and maybe even therapy to you even if it's a bit sadistic

I call that a Performance Enhancement Revision Change Request.

Thanks Cam and Pat. I appreciate the comments and encouragement.

I'm just sick about this because I thought we had addressed everything properly, especially things my son hadn't thought about because this isn't my first rodeo. It is however, the first time I put JK axles under a WJ so I should realize that there may be something I hadn't planned on. What really makes me kick my own *** it because I knew we would be fighting caster because of how high he was going so I compensated by relocating the coil spring bucket to compensate. I figured there would be enough "wiggle room" on the pinion angle to get both pinion angle and caster dialed in but no such luck. I know what needs to be done to correct it but damn, that's a lot of work and on a freshly painted front axle to boot.

Tonight I will take some measurements on correct pinion angle in relations to where the caster is now, then calculate in to where we want the caster so when I get it out from under the Jeep and on the welding table I can accurately move both of the C's correctly. I've seen others do this on driveway concrete but they were also going into rigs that were not going to see much if any highway driving. It is actually more common of a modification than I realized even for a trailer queen rig. I'm sick because we have done so much work and so far above and beyond to keep this thing street friendly as a daily driver and now something as major as this snuck up and kicked me in the ***. My son mentioned putting the caster back down to eliminate the driveshaft hum and he would live with it, but that's not right. I don't want him to fight that and be unsafe driving on the highway, that's NOT what we built. He even mentioned about lowering the Jeep back down to bring it back in line but after all we've done to get it to the proper suspension travel and ride height, especially how bitchin' it looks with the stance, I do NOT want to go backwards.

Thanks again for the comments guys. I guess rework it is....

 

[rattle_snake]

Man that *****. Fixable but a PITA for sure.

I'm assuming the jeep front axle doesn't have hub lockouts, and the front drive shaft has to spin even in 2wd. Can lockouts be added to the 44 to prevent thing from having to spin on the highway (other than from drag and friction)? Not the best solution but just a thought.

 

[zmotorsports]

Man that *****. Fixable but a PITA for sure.

I'm assuming the jeep front axle doesn't have hub lockouts, and the front drive shaft has to spin even in 2wd. Can lockouts be added to the 44 to prevent thing from having to spin on the highway (other than from drag and friction)? Not the best solution but just a thought.

Thanks Justin. It was a thought for about a fraction of a second as he'd still have to contend with the poor driveshaft/pinion angle off road which would get even worse when flexed out. Not worth it as far as I'm concerned. I know mine glides down the highway so I know we can do it, just more work than I thought and not expected.

I appreciate the suggestion though.

 

[lilscorpion]

I figured there would be enough "wiggle room" on the pinion angle to get both pinion angle and caster dialed in but no such luck. I know what needs to be done to correct it but damn, that's a lot of work and on a freshly painted front axle to boot.

Rotate the knuckles...yuk. Grinding the welds until you see the hairline cracks appear and then beating them off isn’t exactly hard, it’s time consuming, messy, and not gratifying.

Can you take an inch of lift out of it? Can’t remember if you added spacers above the coils or not. Maybe an inch would mild out the shimmy.

 

[zmotorsports]

Rotate the knuckles...yuk. Grinding the welds until you see the hairline cracks appear and then beating them off isn’t exactly hard, it’s time consuming, messy, and not gratifying.

Can you take an inch of lift out of it? Can’t remember if you added spacers above the coils or not. Maybe an inch would mild out the shimmy.

Yuk is right Matt. Not looking forward to it, not even one little bit, especially while my project gets delayed. I'm not necessarily afraid of the job, although I have never personally done it, I am just not looking forward to ripping the Jeep back apart again. I was concerned upon mockup but really thought we would be ok by our initial measurements. I knew it was going to be close but I figured with the larger tires having just over 3-degrees of caster would be adequate as I've don't it before. Unfortunately this one doesn't like it. My Jeep has right @ 7-degrees of caster with about 1.5* of pinion to driveshaft angle and goes down the road freaking straight as an arrow and smooth as glass so I think that is going to be our target numbers.

That being said, we could possibly take a little lift out and split the difference sort-a-speak but I'm being hard headed and don't want to do that. I feel like we'd be sacrificing our original plans which I am unfortunately not very flexible on, especially seeing how nice it has turned out now that it is on the road. I think even taking a little lift out will only be a bandaid or compromise, again not what I'm willing to accept out of my shop. That was my son's first response but I quickly squelched it and told him it wasn't an option. I know in my gut that turning the C's is the proper way to achieve what we're after so I guess we just buckle down and get it done.

I greatly appreciate the suggestion though Matt, thanks for following and commenting.

 

[JustinS]

Instead of cutting the actual c's can you cut and rotate the tubes without messing up brackets?

 

[csp]

It was a thought for about a fraction of a second as he'd still have to contend with the poor driveshaft/pinion angle off road which would get even worse when flexed out.

As long as the ujoints don't bind, who cares about the pinion angle at such slow speeds. The driveshaft isn't going to be vibrating. The binding may be the concern though. I know that my CJ pinion angle isn't anywhere near ideal and it gives me zero issues offroading.

 

[Duker]

Mike, that does in a word...****.... i am sure it was doubly frustrating as you were probably psyched to be moving on to your Jeep and have to put the brakes on and start all over again.

However, I do have to admit that as I read the issue about your Son’s Jeep I did feel a little relief knowing that even you have these kind of issues as we were all starting to think you were not human at the pace and quality you get things done around your shop! [emoji51]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[LXCam]

as we were all starting to think you were not human

Ya well I still have my doubts, jumbled algorithm or not.

 

[zmotorsports]

Instead of cutting the actual c's can you cut and rotate the tubes without messing up brackets?

I'm not as worried about the brackets because when I welded them on I compensated slightly for a more favorable angle so they are actually slightly off now as we were trying to dial the caster in. When we rotate the differential in relationship to the knuckles the bracketry will actually be damn near ideal. Moving the tubes in the center section would actually create more work at this time than the knuckles.

As long as the ujoints don't bind, who cares about the pinion angle at such slow speeds. The driveshaft isn't going to be vibrating. The binding may be the concern though. I know that my CJ pinion angle isn't anywhere near ideal and it gives me zero issues offroading.

The u-joint on the axle is not binding but it is at ~10* angle to the driveshaft. As for who cares about u-joints at such slow speeds, the slow speeds are not what I am concerned about, at slow speeds it's fine, at freeway speeds is where we are picking up the vibrations and that is with minimal caster. Once we adjust for more caster the vibrations only get worse. If this was merely a trail rig, buggy or trailer queen I wouldn't be fretting so much but this is a daily driver that will see 70 MPH interstate speeds more than likely daily and I want it to handle perfectly, not compromise or settle. The double cardan cancels out the elliptical rotation on its own but that requires the axle end to be at or very near zero or it will induce elliptical speeds/harmonics that won't be cancelled out. Tom Woods does made a mulit-double cardan shaft, which places a double cardan joint at the axle end as well as the transfer case. That would be an option but it would still be a balancing act as we are nearing the breakoff angle of where those can be affective. My driveshaft to pinion angle currently is around 10-degrees and by rotating the knuckles we can get it back to nearly zero with some adjustability for caster.

At this point, the only proper way of correcting both the caster AND the pinion/driveshaft angle is to cut and clock the knuckles, all else is merely a bandaid. We suspected this would be close during mock-up as once you get over the roughly 4~ish inches of lift things require more than just adjusting as geometry changes drastically above that, but I guess I was hoping for a little luck. Like I tell my son, hope isn't a plan.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, that does in a word...****.... i am sure it was doubly frustrating as you were probably psyched to be moving on to your Jeep and have to put the brakes on and start all over again.

However, I do have to admit that as I read the issue about your Son’s Jeep I did feel a little relief knowing that even you have these kind of issues as we were all starting to think you were not human at the pace and quality you get things done around your shop! [emoji51]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Ya well I still have my doubts, jumbled algorithm or not.

Ha, ha, ha. You guys are HILARIOUS.

Trust me I am FAR from super-human. I F**K up just like everyone else and have to swallow my pride and move on. While I appreciate the sentiments and I am flattered by the comments guys, I am ashamed to admit that last night I went to a dark place as I had a bit of a melt-down. I really didn't even feel like doing a damn thing in the shop and the more I sat and stared at the Jeep the more pissed I got. I found it hard to focus as I was measuring angles and trying to concoct a plan. I know most of you would have probably just ran home, pulled up your shirt sleeves and dove into the task at hand but I was spent and my heart just wasn't in it last night. Maybe I had a bit of a pitty party because I even contemplated about pushing my Jeep off until next year sometime as I just wasn't in the mood to deal with any more **** than I already am right now.

After a good night's sleep and maybe a little time to reflect on the situation and the fact that at least I can fix it and don't have to take it to someone else, I guess I am ready to get back after it tomorrow morning and proceed.

I hate when I get feeling like this and can't clear my head over a setback but that is something I continuously struggle with. I don't know if it is my OCD that rears it's ugly head and gets the better of me that forces me to go to that dark place or what it is but I hate feeling like I did last night and wish I could overcome that behavior. I hate it when I get those negative feelings and thoughts that come rushing in when I let my guard down. I feel like Satan is winning and I struggle to pull myself back from that grasp he has on me. I won't let my wife around me when I get to that point because I don't ever want her to think less of me, and believe me, last night I was struggling.

Thanks for the kind words guys and I promise to get my *** back in gear and move forward.

 

[Finallygotit]

Mike, I know how you feel. When I was working on the Cobra, I had many times where I had to just walk away; the frustration was overwhelming. But I always came back with a clearer head and a plan. I turned that frustration into a learning experience and was better for it. Almost sounds cliche......almost.



Hey, I called myself the re-do king and made up a sign that I hung in the garage as a tongue-in-cheek reminder.


This too shall pass.

 

[lilscorpion]

I know most of you would have probably just ran home, pulled up your shirt sleeves and dove into the task at hand but I was spent and my heart just wasn't in it last night. Maybe I had a bit of a pitty party because I even contemplated about pushing my Jeep off until next year sometime as I just wasn't in the mood to deal with any more **** than I already am right now.

LOL, pull up my sleeves and dove into the task...BS, I’d have done just like you. Say there for two hours staring at the damn thing half wanting to melt it down and buy it in the back yard, half blaming myself for not choosing other paths I could have chosen. Then I’d sleep like $hit tossing and turning. Sometimes this goes on for days. Eventually though, I wake up (either figuratively or literally) and I have an idea. Many times a really really good one. Sometimes I just go fix it so I can get back to normal.

All of that is venting and it’s a necessary step towards getting to a good place. We all do it different ways. Some never get to the good place though and get stuck in the tantrum....that’s bad.

I hate when I get feeling like this and can't clear my head over a setback but that is something I continuously struggle with. I don't know if it is my OCD that rears it's ugly head and gets the better of me that forces me to go to that dark place or what it is but I hate feeling like I did last night and wish I could overcome that behavior. I hate it when I get those negative feelings and thoughts that come rushing in when I let my guard down. I feel like Satan is winning and I struggle to pull myself back from that grasp he has on me. I won't let my wife around me when I get to that point because I don't ever want her to think less of me, and believe me, last night I was struggling.

.

I have learned to have multiple projects in flight at the same time. To others that looks like chaos but for me, it gives me someplace productive to escape to when the devil appears to have me by short hairs. I’ve learned that it’s not me that’s broken, it’s the situation and being able to take a break from possible failure and immediacy become productive (if not log an win) has been a great help. That is primarily, why I like working on the shop in parallel to working on a project in the shop.


Hang in there, the work ahead just needs to be done to get past it. The hardest part is getting started.

 

[zmotorsports]

Dan/Matt, I appreciate your comments guys. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone and others can relate. Re-work is one of those things that makes me feel like I failed somewhere and for some reason I have this mindset that failure is unacceptable. I don't know where I got that from but it's something I have struggled with my entire life. My wife tells me that sometimes I need to fail in order to succeed but I tell her that's BS and blow it off. She also tells me that sometimes the things we struggle the most with often turns out to be the things we turn out to be the best at. She told me last night to look at how much I have learned through this and how much having to go back and redo the front axle has taught me to look ahead at the next project.

I love that woman with all my heart but I really hate it when she is so right all of the time.

This also confirms why I love this forum so much, not only do we show off our work and bounce ideas off of each other but we talk through the trials and struggles in everyday life. Many times we think we are going through something unique only to find out others deal with the exact same thing.

Thanks for the feedback and comments guys, I REALLY appreciate it.