Wolfpack Alpha - 2014 JK Build Thread

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The other project I just got done. Finally got my new steering stabilizer on Friday. I ordered it in late July but I just got it. Wasn't in stock, had to be made. Normally 3 to 5 weeks but got delayed supposedly because of Covid. If you saw my post earlier this spring the stock stabilizer popped off the bushing. It was beat to crap so I decided to replace it. I have been driving without one ever since. Until now...



Man King makes some pretty stuff!

 

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Got ducked for the first time a couple of weeks ago in Greenville, ME. If the person is on here,thank you. I am honored.

 

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Got a new present yesterday:

View attachment 603892

I have known my ball joints were starting to go but have just been putting off the project a little bit. Have a little shimmy in the wheel and some death wobble just here and there, but time to finally get this done.

Nice packaging:

View attachment 603893

These things sure are beefy:

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More to come, stay tuned!

Well on second thought maybe not so beefy. We were out this weekend on some pretty technical trails, including some rocks. On the way home the Jeep was pulling and unstable. After an on-road inspection, The only thing I could find was that the tires look toed out. I drove it home slowly and cautiously.

During a deeper inspection at home yesterday I also found a ton of play on the passenger side ball joints. I took it to the dealer as I couldn't believe what I was seeing and they are saying the top and bottom ball joints are shot. They are not even 30 days old!!!!

I have reached out to Teraflex but have not heard back yet...not thrilled.

Has anyone else had trouble with Teraflex Ball Joints?

 

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Update: I spoke to Teraflex and the gentleman doubts they are bad as they are in his words built for one tons. He said most likely they just need to be adjusted, and add the preload back on them. To be honest, sounds plausible but also makes me wonder why this would happen in less than a month. I hope that I won't need to be doing this every month. Thankfully the adjustment tool is included.


Unfortunately, it requires a square male pipe plug socket to use it with the torque wrench. And of course I don't have one. On order should be here tomorrow. Stay tuned...

 

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From while we were in the woods this past weekend, my wife was thrilled that I finally found it...funny ?

 

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Been working on a new project. I have been wanting to add a fuse block to the front of the interior to power the electronics and my hand finally got forced when my power plug stopped working in the dash.

I bought two new Blue Sea Dual USB fast chargers.



I ran that to a Blue Sea fuse block that I had sitting around.



I tried to attach it to the back of the glove box, but just didn't fit. Ended up tucking it under the glove box and attached it to a support with some velcro.



It's all finished up and works great. Will share some pics of the final result tomorrow.

 

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One of the reasons I wanted to add the second outlet was for my next project:



8" Samsung Tab A to run Gaia GPS in the Jeep. We are long term Gaia users but have been running it on my phone so far. Time to upsize a little.



The Tab A doesn't have GPS so it will be connected to our Inreach Mini for a GPS signal. All connected and ready to go. Just need the Ram mount that should be here Tuesday.

 

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Quick update on the front end repairs. I followed Teraflex's directions (or so I thought) to adjust the pre-load on the passenger side lower ball joint with the supplied tool, but I wasn't able to get it tight enough (or so I thought) and didn't want to damage the ball joint. So I called Teraflex and walked through the process again and then I caught something he said at the end, tighten to 7 or 8 INCH pounds of torque, not 70 feet pounds. He said they get calls on that a lot. You might want to clarify this...

So basically it is almost just hand tightened. With this done I took it for an alignment and he told me that it was so far out of whack that it didn't initially register on the machine. I knew it was bad. It was a tough day in the rocks but still, I am hoping that some of this was caused by the ball join becoming unloaded and adding play in the system but who knows.

During my inspection, I did notice that the drag link has a pretty serious bend in it, and the tie rod has a very small bend / dent in it. Fantastic as I just bought these new a couple of months ago.

Will need to invest in a heavy-duty set but these will do for now. I was hoping it would still align and it seems like it did at least for now.

 

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Not a bad lineup at the doctor's office this morning.

 

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Continued working on the tablet mounting system. Started to get parts in. Decided to try the "large claw" from RAM to try and mount it directly to the grab handle. Good news, it fits!




Next, I got the X Grip for 8" tablets and a medium arm:

 

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Bad news, the large claw comes with a 3" ball:



Well that's not going to work. After calling RAM I was able to order a replacement 1" ball. $7, nice! Shipping $20 ?.

Got the new ball in today:

 

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All done, so far so good.





And here are the finished two outlets I added to the dash:





Cockpit almost complete.

 

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In the middle of a couple of projects. First up Genesis dual battery kit. While it ended up well, the install was pretty intensive. You basically have to take apart the entire left side of the engine compartment in order to get the old battery tray out and the new one in. And everything is a really tight fit.





I am happy that it is all done and happy to have it. I have been worried about having battery troubles when out remote. Luckily we haven't had any issues to date, and this should keep it from happening in the future.

 

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So I finally was able to finish up the front end repairs from a trip earlier in the year when we got in the rocks quite a bit. On our way home it was obvious something was wrong as it wouldn't track straight and was unstable. First I found that one of the newer Teraflex ball joints had become unloaded, which I was able to fix by adding the load back on. Next, it needed an alignment bad, it was so out of alignment that the tech said it didn't even register on the machine at first.

While this helped quite a bit the front was extremely unstable. I had a hunch and found that the sway bar had come unlocked. I have a Rubicon with the electronic front sway bar disconnect. If anyone remembers from an earlier post, last year I dealt with a bunch of gremlins with the sway bar disconnect bar from water getting in the electric connection and it would actually go into limp mode. So I disconnected the plug and still had issues so I just cut the plug off and capped the wires and haven't had an issue since.

Until now...while the electronic gremlins are gone, I now had no way to relock the bar. I had placed an order for the EVO manual lock but it was back-ordered for weeks, so I canceled the order and went in a new direction. So now on with the new, Curry Rockjock Antirock. I had to adjust it a little bit now seems to drive great. Will wait and see but seem to have finally cured my front-end wows. The install was pretty straight forward and easy. I had read from others that it was hard to get the new bar into the bushings, but Curry must have changed the clearances as mine went in very easily. So far very happy.

 

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Why do I keep having crazy stories happen to me? So I get home today from running some errands and ran in the house with one load, and then went back into the garage to grab another load, and the winch starts going all on its own. Mind you the Jeep is off. Thankfully it is spooling out, but then it changes direction and starts spooling in!! So much so it is to the point the motor was stalling. I first ran and grabbed the wireless remote to see if I could get it to stop, no dice, it wouldn't respond to it. So I quickly pop the hood, grab a wrench and start taking off the power and ground wires to be safe. Finally, it stops. It is a Comeup 9.5 that I have had for a few years and have used many times without issue, including about a week ago.

So I have spent most of the day on the phone with Comeup tech support and they are guessing that it is a problem / short in the control box. They had me test the motor to see if it still runs with some unique wiring and no dice, it is either bad or too stuck from the motor keep trying to pull the line in. I now need to get it out and send it back to them to take a look at.

I will say that Rod from Comeup has been fantastic. He said he has seen this maybe once or twice, and he thinks that it is a problem with the wireless remote receiver but we will see.

I still can't believe that it happened, but am thankful that I was there when it did because the winch leads at the battery were getting super hot and could have started a fire.

Will keep you posted. In the meantime has anyone ever heard of this or something like this happening before?