Full Size Jeep Network

Hey friends!

While my wife and I have been really good about getting to Ouray every year, it's been a long time since I've been with my FSJ. I quit my grown up job to burn through my GI bill before it expired, and college really sucks up all the time in the day, one way or the other. I've gotten far enough that none of the classes I still need are offered during the summer, so I get to take the summer off! That means that bringing the Money Badger is closer to being a reality than it has been since I knocked my wife up 4 years ago, haha!

I just told you that to tell you this, I picked up some 4.10 thick gears, so that I might get over the highway passes between here and there, despite running a 304 and 33s. I had 31s and came from the west last time I drove Money Badger to Ouray. Before MB got parked, it couldn't hold 4th on any kind of hill, and even 3rd would start to fall off in the steeper sections of 285 between Denver and Bailey, CO. I also picked up a Walbro255 (GSS342) fuel pump to feed the TBI.

More importantly, I've started uncovering and unstuffing it. It's never surprising, but always a little amazing how much crap can get stuffed into a non-running truck in your garage.

I probably just jinxed myself, but I'm getting kind of excited to have my truck there again so I won't be confined to the bunny trails in my wife's DD KL Trailhawk, hehe!

Get it going. Even if you don’t fix everything you’d like to, remember.....

Money Badger don’t give a ****!!!

I have everything to do gears in Wagoneer Dana 44's. All the tools and a good set of setup bearings. And I'm back up in Denver (Ken Caryl to be precise) so once I get back from EJS I'd be happy to do a gear swap party.

derf wrote:I have everything to do gears in Wagoneer Dana 44's. All the tools and a good set of setup bearings. And I'm back up in Denver (Ken Caryl to be precise) so once I get back from EJS I'd be happy to do a gear swap party.

So you moved out of your place??

It would be totally cool if you can bring the Badger. We love the FSJ's. But I am more excited about you guys showing up again, even if you show up in a different jeep.

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:

derf wrote:I have everything to do gears in Wagoneer Dana 44's. All the tools and a good set of setup bearings. And I'm back up in Denver (Ken Caryl to be precise) so once I get back from EJS I'd be happy to do a gear swap party.

So you moved out of your place??

The job in CO Springs was always intended to be a temporary stop, which is why I had the apartment. But I moved up the road for a more permanent situation, which was the long term intention all along.

At least I didn't move out to UT. That project was a fuster cluck of epic proportions and has been shut down.

derf wrote:

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:

derf wrote:I have everything to do gears in Wagoneer Dana 44's. All the tools and a good set of setup bearings. And I'm back up in Denver (Ken Caryl to be precise) so once I get back from EJS I'd be happy to do a gear swap party.

So you moved out of your place??

The job in CO Springs was always intended to be a temporary stop, which is why I had the apartment. But I moved up the road for a more permanent situation, which was the long term intention all along.

At least I didn't move out to UT. That project was a fuster cluck of epic proportions and has been shut down.

Cool. So now your in position to help Redone do his gears... Then me with mine! Hahaha

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:Cool. So now your in position to help Redone do his gears... Then me with mine! Hahaha

I can do that.

derf wrote:

tedlovesjeeps71 wrote:Cool. So now your in position to help Redone do his gears... Then me with mine! Hahaha

I can do that.

Could knock the cost of a scrambler down too.

Thanks guys! I'll definitely be in Ouray again this year, we love seeing you guys from all over the map. I think my wife is just happy that I have friends, even if I only see you all once a year, hahaha!

I've done quite a few gears and also have all the set up bearings and tools. I've even built two case spreaders for small Dana's and GMs over the years, but I don't know where they are. I loaned out the first one to a neighbor (I lived in a trailer park) and lost track of the guy until I found out he was in prison for meth (surprise). Loaned the second one to a guy when I was in the Army and we both transferred before I got it back. I did the Grizzly locker in my rear without a spreader and worried about not having enough preload on the carrier bearings, but I've put a couple thousand miles on it since, so I guess I'll see when I open it back up!

I know there's no shortage of folks here that have done gears without a spreader, so I'm starting to think I should have taken all the warnings about preload with a few more grains of salt, haha!

Anyways, I have to get it to run under it's own power so I can spin it around and get it away from the wall before I start on the gears. I hooked up all the TBI to "test" it, then unhooked it all to actually install it, and that was more than 3 years ago. Also, in the middle of that, I decided to completely rewire the whole truck...

Once I finish unburying it, I need to find out where I left off on all those little projects before I can start doing much of anything. Man, past me really screwed present me!

REDONE wrote: Man, past me really screwed present me!

Hahaha!! You win the internet for the day with that one!!!

For real? Go Money Badger!

I have an alumnum snow shovel for moments like this.

REDONE wrote:

Haha! I didn't use a snow shovel, but I did use the threat of impending hailstorms to justify spending a good part of my weekend in the garage cleaning. The storm 2 years ago nearly totaled her fancy Jeep, and was so bad we spent the extra to upgrade our house's roof to camouflaged steel armor plating.
Then I celebrated by doing a thing on the truck. I have so many half started projects that need finished! I took on an easy one; finished wrapping the steering wheel...again.


I"m pretty sure that at the time, I told everyone I had parked it for upgrades, but really it was because it was having some serious problems, no idea why I felt like hiding that behind piles of goodies. The wiring was a big one, every day it was having one electrical gremlin or another. I had already done a wiring *overhaul* before bringing it to Ouray in, dang 2010?? I didn't necessarily cut corners, but there were quite a few non-shrink butt connector spices exposed to the elements. I mocked up the new BJs harness then removed it, then decided that the TBI should be integral...and now I've lost all my diagrams, haha!

Oh yeah, were I was going with that, is that the MAIN thing that lead me to parking the jeep is that I had broken a front shackle bolt on a rear spring. That's the next thing I'm going after, now that I've found my really tall jackstands while cleaning the garage.

Kind of explains the weather in Colorado right now

Haha! No, that's just what Colorado weather is, people just forget every year. This was April 28th of 2017:


A week later the "most expensive hailstorm in Colorado history" hit on May 8th.


Springtime in Colorado does more to scare off Texans/Californians than our winters!

I listen to a radio station in the Denver area the morning guy is always making fun of the weather people's moaning about the weather changing every 1/2 hour in the spring
Last week I was contemplating turning off the heaters in the house then we suddenly go back to 30 degree nights!