Holy hell, it's been a month since I've written anything about this. Today was a bit of a milestone, but first I'll go over what's happened since my last post. Gearing the axles took way longer than I had hoped it would take just due to scheduling and a few hiccups while doing it. After I had gotten them back and started to get them back under the Jeep, I had expected smooth sailing, it certainly wasn't that.
First off, and probably the biggest thing, is that I'm losing my shop. Even though I've been off on my own for a while, mom decided she wasn't interested in the house being by herself, put it up for sale, and accepted a good offer. While this is great for her, it's not so good for me. When she told me about her accepting the offer, I was told I had 6 weeks to get my Jeep done and my shop packed and moved out. To most people, that would probably be plenty of time to finish re-assembly, but I'm not most people. First off, the original axle shafts wouldn't fit into the locker, even after getting some replacement side gears. I even tried a friends spare shafts and they wouldn't fit. Cora recommended that I should get new shafts, because of the age of the original ones, they could have been just different enough to be causing the issue. After some hesitation over money, I decided to commit and got a set of chromoly yukon shafts, 35 spline outers, and Yukon hardcore hubs. They were something I planned on doing next winter anyway and I was running out of time and options. Along with that, I was / am having issues with the drag link binding at full droop. My links are pretty much flat while at ride height but it seems like they run out of travel awfully quick. I have some ideas as to what it could be and how to remedy it, I have to do some testing to know for sure, but I may just throw some limit straps on it and deal with it for now. I've also had some issues with brake parts that I didn't know about slowing down assembly such as the caliper guide pin bolt missing, of which was never there to begin with because today when I went to install it, the remains of the shaft were still in there.
Anyway, today she finally sat on all 4 wheels on her own weight. The "to do" list is slowly getting shorter and shorter. What I figure I have left to do is run the brake lines and bleed, install the front driveshaft, order and install rear shocks, get the steering sorted (may be putting assist on hold depending on time just to get it mobile), secure the gas tank in the back, finish welding the steering/trackbar links, and paint the 60. Although it seems like a short list, as of now, I've got 2 weeks to finish it AND pack the shop up. Should be fun, fingers crossed
